DawnA

Is this standard practice for scrappy quilts? I keep seeing this said to use paper blocks as your guide. What happens to the paper thought when the quilt is washed? It seems like it would cause a problem. Please let me know what to do about the paper after quilting the top. I would love to try this, it makes scrapping seem so more doable.

quilterlois

I use old telephone books.The paper is very thin and tares off very easy when the block is finished.

Tartan

If you go to Bonnie Hunter's site www.quiltville.com and click on her free tutorials, you can see a great example of using paper in her Spiderweb scrap blocks. I am currently working on blocks from that and I used old phone book paper as my base. If you use phone book paper it tears out easily but I don't use steam to press my blocks under construction. I figure the steam may transfer some of the ink to the fabric. Some people use the newsprint blank pads you can get at the $ store to piece on. In this method you basically cut the paper the shape you want your block to end up at. You then sew on your scraps and then flip over the block and trim away all the fabric that extends beyond the paper template. You leave the paper in until the top is all sewn together and pull off the paper before sandwiching the quilt layers. If you use a smaller stitch length when piecing the blocks, the thin paper is easily removed.

bearisgray

Think of it as crazy-quilt paper piecing.

Remove the paper from the top before layering the top with the batting and bottom/back

PaperPrincess

You remove the paper before you sandwich the quilt with the backing and batting.

hopetoquilt

If you use the paper as a foundation, set your stitch shorter. I set mine to 1.7 This makes paper removal so much easier.

ckcowl

if you do not want to deal with removing all that paper use lightweight-inexpensive muslin instead- then it can stay in.
or any lightweight fabric--if you have some you don't think is a good enough weight for quilting it will make good foundations

gollytwo

I've used flat sheets, both new and old/used.